quote:a problematic narrative was hardening around him: His campaign is in disarray and Elizabeth Warren has eclipsed him as the progressive standard-bearer of the primary. He’s sunk to third place nationally, behind Warren and Joe Biden, and some polls of early nomination states show him barely clinging to double digits. He’s shaken up his staffs in Iowa and New Hampshire. He’s lost the endorsement of the Working Families Party, a left-wing group that backed him in 2016, to Warren.
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“Bernie has no idea how to right the ship and neither does anybody around him,” a Democratic activist with knowledge of the campaign says. “They don’t know where they’re going. They know things aren’t going well and they’re grasping at ideas.”
As Sanders has stagnated and Warren has soared, even some of the Vermont senator’s supporters are expressing alarm. Something is off, they say privately, adding to the chorus of people in establishment political circles saying the same thing.
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The ideas from his volunteers, former aides, past delegates, steering committee members, and even some people within his campaign, vary. But they almost all come back to the same fundamental question, a question that has confounded the campaign since its earliest days: Can Bernie Sanders — a 78-year-old iconoclast whose entire identity is about standing firm in his beliefs, damn it — change?
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“My go-to answer when anyone asks me what Bernie’s really like, and I get asked that question all the time, is he is exactly how he is onstage in real life," a former aide to Sanders says. "He’s kind of a cranky, cantankerous old man who is completely and just obsessively convinced of his convictions. There’s no political calculation, really, with the things he does and says. And that’s why he can speak with a clear mind and clear heart about his economic message better than almost anyone can. But it also comes with pitfalls.”
* * * *
Andrew Feldman, a progressive consultant with close ties to labor unions, says Sanders has been given a gift: With the national media absorbed by the impeachment inquiry, he has an opportunity to reset and develop a clear plan to win Iowa.
“The question,” he says, “is will he and his team be able to professionalize their operation to really maximize on this moment?”
Sanders has shown he can change, but only a little, at times, in ways that feel true to him. The question is whether that’s enough to win — and perhaps more importantly, whether Americans want a president who won’t bend.
quote:I think, if Bernie really cared about progressive issues, it's time for him to cut a deal with Elizabeth Warren and fall in line behind her.
quote:But I doubt he'll do it until it's too late to make a difference, because this is as much about ego as it is about issues for him.
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My piano recordings at Box.Net: https://app.box.com/s/j4rgyhn72uvluemg1m6u
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fear is the thief of dreams
quote:Originally posted by piqué:
At this point maybe they all should fold up their tents and support Warren?
I think it's too early for that. First of all, the diversity of the candidates mean lots of ideas are aired. I think that's healthy. Second, maybe don't put all our eggs into one basket just yet, because at some point Warren is going to screw up or the gods will quit favoring her for even a stupid reason, and we'll want to have options.
I don't think Bernie would make a good executive, but I want his voice in the conversation about where we need to go from here. Until the primaries, let's keep that discussion going.
quote:Originally posted by piqué:
At this point maybe they all should fold up their tents and support Warren?
I think it's too early for that. First of all, the diversity of the candidates mean lots of ideas are aired. I think that's healthy. Second, maybe don't put all our eggs into one basket just yet, because at some point Warren is going to screw up or the gods will quit favoring her for even a stupid reason, and we'll want to have options.
I don't think Bernie would make a good executive, but I want his voice in the conversation about where we need to go from here. Until the primaries, let's keep that discussion going.
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Several people have eaten my cooking and survived.
quote:Originally posted by Nina:
Maybe people are tired of being yelled at by him, when Warren is saying essentially the same message without the drama and finger-wagging.
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If you think looting is bad wait until I tell you about civil forfeiture.
quote:Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
Cindy — confident that 2016 Bernie would have lost in a landslide
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If you think looting is bad wait until I tell you about civil forfeiture.
quote:Originally posted by jon-nyc:quote:Originally posted by Nina:
Maybe people are tired of being yelled at by him, when Warren is saying essentially the same message without the drama and finger-wagging.
I’ve never noticed any daylight between them in the sanctimonious finger-wagging department.
In the drama department, she and her DNA test win.
quote:Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
And now a heart procedure to insert stents?
I think that's it for Bernie.
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Several people have eaten my cooking and survived.